There's Still Money Out There,
But What Counts Is Pedigree

By

Kristi Essick Special to The Wall Street Journal

Updated Nov. 23, 2001 12:01 a.m. ET

PARIS -- French software engineer Andre Meyer managed to snare 11 million euros (US$9.7 million) in first-round funding for his start-up VoluBill, a cool 4 million euros more than the firm initially hoped to raise.

Sound like one of those flash-in-the-pan success stories straight out of the heady days of early 2000? It happened two weeks ago.

Mr. Meyer's venture-capital backers aren't in a time warp. There's still money for...